Specifically, if Washington assistant coach Tosh Lupoi is found guilty of laying out nearly $5,000 to cover the private tutoring costs of former Huskies defensive line recruit Andrew Basham — as Lupoi is being accused of by Mike Davis, a former coach of Basham.

If this accusation is true — and if you believe the damning account presented by Davis in a detailed report in the Los Angeles Times, it certainly doesn’t look good for Lupoi — the next obvious question is how did new USC coach Steve Sarkisian, who was Lupoi’s boss at Washington, not know it was going on?

Sarkisian insisted he was unaware of any wrongdoing, but even if he’s telling the truth it renders him either very naive or out of focus.

Neither is a good look for the new head coach of one of the premier programs in college football.

If the accusation is true, of course.

At this point USC stands firmly behind Sarkisian. But the school has opened a detailed investigation into the claims — along with Washington — so I’d caution anyone completely making up their mind until those inquiries are completed.

I have faith in USC doing its due diligence, but it will be fascinating to see what Washington comes up with and how it might relate to Sarkisian, who isn’t real popular right now in Seattle after bolting the Huskies for the hated Trojans.

Washington has every reason to come clean on this and no reason to protect Sarkisian. And that should make for a riveting investigation.

It’s certainly raises major questions.

How can the head coach of a major program not know one of his high-profile assistants paid money to a high-profile recruit?

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Why would Lupoi reach into his own pocket and pay for a recruit’s extra schooling?

And what sort of environment did Sarkisian create in Seattle in which an assistant coach would even think of doing such a thing, let alone actually do it?

Does any of that make sense to you?

Does any of it sound believable?

Sarkisian, who left Washington two weeks ago to take over at USC, claimed he was unaware of any wrongdoing and an initial investigation by USC’s compliance office turned up no evidence Sarkisian played any role in the matter.

Maybe none of it’s true. Or maybe Lupoi really did act alone and this is all just a case of terribly poor timing for USC.

Regardless, it doesn’t look good for the school or athletic director Pat Haden, the man most responsible for bringing Sarkisian to Los Angeles.

Haden and USC have worked ardently to distance themselves from the NCAA’s cross-hairs and now must hold their collective breath hoping another shoe doesn’t fall from the sky and smack the Trojans across the forehead.

At the very least, this hardly is the first major impression Haden needed for his new coach.

In a nutshell Lupoi — who denies any wrongdoing — is accused of paying $3,000 to cover Basham’s tutoring costs with a test preparation company and another $1,500 for online classes to help Basham raise his grade-point average.

Davis, who was working as a middle man between Lupoi and Basham, claimed he received two cash payments from Lupoi for the services.

Lupoi was hired by Sarkisian in 2012 and lured to Washington from Cal specifically for his highly regarded recruiting skills.

If you believe Davis, it turns out that recruiting prowess might have been greatly enhanced.

Or in this case, funded.

Lupoi was not one of the three coaches Sarkisian brought with him from Seattle to Los Angeles, although it was assumed he eventually would land on Sarkisian’s staff.

The chances of that happening are extremely remote at this point, and it certainly seems conspicuous in retrospect. Lupoi was not part of the original group headed south from Seattle.

But again, we’re still dealing with if’s right now.

For arguments sake, let’s assume Lupoi is guilty. A kid needed to raise his GPA and test scores to qualify at Washington — interestingly, Basham never did meet entrance requirements — and Lupoi helped point him in the direction of assistance and then paid for the services.

Aside from being a major infraction, it also raises significant questions as to what Sarkisian knew and when did he know it.

Because it’s hard to swallow the notion an assistant coach is so benevolent he’d use his own money to help a kid in need of help. Or that Lupoi simply came up with the plan all by himself, executed it and kept it own the down low from his boss, whose primary objective besides fielding a championship team is doing it within the strict guidelines of the NCAA rulebook and creating a transparent environment in which he and his staff operate.